The Pride of Olminar - 6 BBY

Avery Rexler stared out of the cutter's viewport as Karavann VII's orb filled the transparisteel, its atmospheric bands of green, blue and silver riven with eddies, and swirling with superstorm cells. He guessed that between the pressure and the shearing forces, even the Empire's stoutest vessels would be crushed or shattered if any were unlucky enough to fall into the gas giant's ample gravity well. That is, if they could find the place. What he didn't see was any sign of their destination. "Lily, where's our station?"

"In a polar geosynch orbit, sir," answered the young woman in the pilot's seat. She looked over her right shoulder at Avery with bright green eyes that matched the highlights in her shoulder-length blonde hair. "Should be in view soon."

"Ever heard of this place, Joniah?"

The dark-skinned man sitting in the cockpit's front right seat shook his shaved head. "Nobody, but nobody comes this far out into Wild Space. The Karavann system's unexplored as far as I know. Hell, it's a damn miracle anybody even stumbled across the hyperspace spur, much less found a system out here. As for the Drift, well, I've heard stories, pirates' tales. Nothing I'd put any stock in."

Rexler rubbed his chin. "I suppose we're about to find out if any of them are true."

Letsago Drift emerged from behind the planet's churning blue southern pole. Green and amber signal lights flashed across the discordant jumble of scaffolds, structural spars, habitation modules, antenna clusters, and other constructs. At one end they could see a giant rotating hab ring.

"Spin gravity?" commented the pilot. "Just how old is this thing?"

The comm signal chimed. "Approaching vessel, this is restricted space," came a woman's voice carrying a thick accent Rexler couldn't identify. "State your business."

The pilot keyed the transmitter. "Letsago Drift from cutter Stelara. We're here by invitation. Transmitting ident and action codes, and requesting docking vector."

There was a long pause on the other end of the transmission. As the seconds ticked away, the pilot turned to Rexler. "They do know we're coming, right sir?"

Avery lifted the corner of his mouth in a half-grin. "They'd better Ensign, or this could be a really short commission."

"Yes sir," she replied with some skepticism as the comm channel crackled. "Stelara, you're cleared for docking at port six-six-two. Switch to Approach Control on frequency nine-one-seven gigacycles."

"See? Nothing to worry about," Joniah pronounced, leaning back and crossing his arms.

Lily dialed in the approach control frequency, set the cutter's helm to automatic, and shot a skeptical glance at the man beside her.

Twenty-two minutes later docking clamps extended from Port 662 and grasped the Stelara in a steely embrace. Lily powered down the ion drives as an air bridge clanged against the cutter's docking ring. The trio unlocked their harnesses and exited the ship.

The door at the other end of the long pressurized span irised open into an expansive maintenance bay. Maybe sixty meters away was a wide opening protected by a shimmering containment field through which workpods and parts haulers came and went in a steady stream. In the vacuum beyond the containment field, a ship sat amongst the gridwork of a spacedock, its hull a patchwork of partially assembled plates. Inside the bay, dozens of droids and humanoid workers moved about. The atmosphere was thick with the smell of ozone, lubricant, fuel, and sweat. Out of place among all of the machinery and workers, a twenty-meter-high formation of glossy black faceted stones occupied part of the wall. A waterfall cascaded over the rocks, splashing into an irregularly shaped pool. Green, purple and orange ferns shrouded the pool and hung from crevices in the rocks.

A woman walked toward them, accompanied by a BD-3000 luxury droid, its silver and lavender anodized body dazzling under the bright white lights. The woman was dressed in the same slate blue uniform trousers and jackets as they wore. She smiled at Avery as she approached. "Rex!" she called out, "I'm so glad you came."

"So am I, Dee," he answered, taking her hand in his. "How long's it been?"

"Ten, eleven years."

"You look— fantastic," he said in a lowered voice.

Her smile brightened for a moment, and she might have blushed. "You too, Rex." Then she stepped back and addressed the others. "Dianthe Numarkos, Chief of Operations for Razorclaw Cell. Welcome to Letsago Drift."

Rexler introduced the man and woman with him. "Dee, this is my command staff. Joniah Norissian, my XO, and one of the best astrogators you'll ever find."

Norissian's long fingers swallowed Dee's smaller hand. "Pleasure, ma'am," said the tall astrogator.

"And my helm officer, Lillian Barou. She'll fly circles around any ship in the Imperial fleet."

"Call me Lily, ma'am" said the pilot, taking Dee's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Lily, Joniah. Rex— Captain Rexler has told me a lot about you both. I know the decision to come here wasn't an easy one."

"What we saw the Empire do to the Rhodoraan exodus fleet made it a whole lot easier," Norissian offered.

Lily's small shoulders shrugged. "We've already mutinied and deserted. The Empire can only kill us once."

"Well, you're joining a Rebel cell. If they catch us we'll probably all wish we were dead. But enough grim talk. How do you like the uniforms?"

"They're smart, functional, and best of all, not Imperial," said Rexler, tugging at the bottom of the waist-length jacket. "I'm surprised that you're organized like a military unit, though."

"I admit after Arkanis I didn't want much to do with the military, and you know how fond I am of uniforms, regulations, the whole lot," Dee answered. "Aristotle Karanos wanted Razorclaw to be just a covert operation to counter Imperial propaganda."

"You don't need a military organization for that," Norissian observed.

"No indeed," she said and ushered them forward. The group moved down a path marked with red and white-striped borders toward the far end of the bay "But I'm not satisfied with conducting surveillance and making pirate Holonet 'casts. That's not going to free Filve or bring down the Empire. To do that Razorclaw needs a military force."

"Do you have one, Dee?" asked Rexler.

"I'm building one, starting with the three of you, I hope. It's mostly mercenaries and contractors for now, but I have a line on something much better. Ever heard of Arclight Academy?"

"Hmm, maybe. It's in the Outer Rim. Haven for pirates and smugglers, isn't it?"

"Fonash IV in the Tolonda sector," Numarkos said. "Some of our hires have gone through there. Seems it was taken over by veterans of the Kota Militia who spent some time with a Corellian rebel cell. They've thrown out the riff-raff and hired skilled instructors— former Republic military, even some Imperial defectors. They're turning out good pilots, combat troops, engineers, and ship crews."

"Sounds like a diamond in the rough. What's the downside?" asked Norissian.

"None that I know of, though I understand the place is pretty run down and operating on a shoestring. I'm thinking of investing in it, in return for a trained crew."

"For what ship?

"This one," Dee said, sweeping her hand toward the vessel moored in the spacedock. They'd reached the end of the bay and could see the ship more clearly. "She's the Pride of Olminar."

The ship looked to be somewhere around two hundred fifty meters in length, with an oval, sloping hull. A bulge on the hull that Avery guessed was the bridge sat well back, flanked by big turrets mounting quartets of heavy cannons. There were blocky protrusions near the rear of the ship on either side and he counted eight point-defense emplacements encircling the ship near her midsection. Underneath were more turrets, not as big as the ones above, but imposing nonetheless. He let out a low whistle. "I'm impressed. Don't recognize her class, though."

Dee smiled. "The Pride of Olminar is one of a kind, Rex, but I guess you could call her a strike frigate. Karanos built her as a yacht, but even that was just a cover. Maybe you heard about his tour through the Core and Mid Rim a couple of years back? It was called Lethe's Jewel then, after his wife."

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Lily's green eyes lit up. "I remember seeing it on the 'net. Wasn't it lost in hyperspace and presumed destroyed?"

Dee nodded. "Some trickery on his part, to get it here for conversion to a base of operations for Razorclaw. We pirated most of the weapons and other parts right from KTS's own shipments. That way the Empire can't trace anything back to them."

Norissian pointed to the exposed keel and a pair of structural spars that ran parallel to it. Maintenance pods and haulers swarmed there. "What's going on underneath?"

"She's being fitted with her new primary weapons."

"The turrets aren't her primaries?"

Numarkos shook her head. "She's a pair of terawatt-class turbolasers in the spars."

Joniah uttered a scatalogical epithet. "You could tear apart a pretty big ship with those."

"It gets better," said Numarkos, ignoring the tall astrogator's curse. "I'm putting an ion railgun in her keel."

Lily looked confused. "I don't think I've heard of that before."

"Few enough have. It's ancient tech, pre-Ruusan stuff, maybe a few thousand years old." Dee waved her hand over her head. "You saw the Drift when you came in, right? It's been built up over hundreds of years. The oldest sections go back millennia. A KTS explorer team found this place more than two centuries ago while they were surveying hyperspace routes. Eventually, smugglers, pirates, and every kind of scum and villainy did too. Since it's so far off the beaten path it's escaped the notice of authorities. KTS runs the place— through a cut-out of course— Uses it for their, shall we say, business pursuits of ambiguous legality.

"Forty some-odd years ago, the engineers were digging through the oldest sections of the Drift when they stumbled on plans for a massive ion cannon, like the kind you'd use for planetary defense. Only, this one had a railgun built into it. They couldn't make anything of it, but they gave it to the geniuses at Trinian Ordnance, and they brought it into the modern age. I'm told it fires a tungsten alloy slug over ten thousand meters per second. It outranges any turbolaser, and carries so much energy it can punch through the shields and armor of just about anything in the Imperial fleet with one shot. Which is a good thing because the engineers also say that the rails take a beating and have to be replaced after a dozen rounds or so."

"Still," Rexler trailed off, his tactical mind already thinking of ways to deploy the giant cannon.

"We're mounting a smaller one in a turret on the dorsal hull. It should have about a quarter of the main gun's yield, but it'll mean a bad day for anything smaller than an Imperial-class Star Destroyer."

Norissian had an excited look on his face. "I wouldn't mind taking on some Imperials with that."

"Consider it done," Dee addressed the curvaceous droid beside her. "Demetra, inform the chief engineer that the ion railgun turret's controls are to be installed at the Executive Officer's station in the command module."

The droid nodded her graceful head. "Very well, Sendok'Nar Numarkos." She took a comlink from a small satchel and spoke into it.

"Sendoknar?" said Rexler with an uncertain expression.

Dee smiled at his confusion "We've been using the old Filvian Planetary Force rank structure for ground and space forces. Sendok'Nar is equivalent to a major in the Imperial and Alderaanian systems. That reminds me—" She reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew a small box. "Kardok'Nar's stars, equivalent to a full Colonel," she said to Avery, pinning the double row of three eight-pointed gold stars to his jacket's square collar. "There. You have the highest rank in Razorclaw Cell." Then to Joniah: "Sendok'Nar Norissian, your starbursts." She opened another box and affixed the quartet of six-pointed gold stars to his collar. "For you, Lily, Sendok stars, equivalent to a captain."

"Ooh, a promotion!" Lily exclaimed as Dee pinned on the insignia of three, four-pointed gold stars.

She regarded the three of them, then took a step back and saluted them. "I'm not much for ceremony, but it's my honor to designate you as the command crew of the frigate Pride of Olminar. Congratulations and welcome to Razorclaw Cell." She shook each of their hands again. "Demetra, ask Captain Daxarnok to join us please."

"Of course, ma'am." The droid spoke into her comlink. A few moments later a filvian imbish ambled over on all fours from where she had been supervising the work. She stood and bowed to Numarkos. "Good afternoon Major Numarkos-nagrasha. What can I do for you?"

"Captain D'nun Daxarnok is our Tactical Officer and co-pilot," she said to the new arrivals. D'nun-grasha, meet the rest of your command team. Colonel Avery Rexler will be the Olminar's commanding officer."

The filvian rendered a snappy salute, then took Avery's outstretched hand. "A pleasure to serve under your command, Colonel Rexler-nagrasha."

"Major Joniah Norissian will be the executive officer and astrogator."

Daxarnok saluted and shook his hand. "Welcome to Razorclaw, Major Norissian-nagrasha."

"Thanks," Joniah said, then added, "By the way, what did you just call me?"

Dee waved her hand. "We Filvians use honorifics. 'Nagrasha' is the honorific we use when greeting someone of higher status or senior rank."

Joniah gave a slow nod of his head. "Between the rank names and honorifics, my head's swimming."

Dee laughed. "Most of the crew are Filvians, either native or human transplants. You'll pick up the local customs soon enough. Don't worry, though. Onboard we'll stick to standard military ranks without the honorifics." She turned to Daxarnok. "Last up is your partner in crime. This is Captain Lillian Barou, Olminar's pilot and second officer."

"Lily," said Barou, stretching out her hand and smiling. "My call sign's Dancer."

"Shooter," answered the Filvian female, taking Lily's hand in hers and giving it a firm shake. "It will be my honor to fight beside you, Lily-aktuu."

"I'm looking forward to it, Daxarnok... aktuu, is it?" She looked back and forth between Dee and the filvian.

"'Aktuu' is used with a colleague whose skills you recognize and admire," explained Dee.

"Please call me Shooter, or Dax," the imbish said with a toothy grin.

Dee clapped her hands together. "Wonderful. Let's grab some lunch, then I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew and you can tour your new ship."

Two hours later they were back aboard the little cutter. Lily and Dax slid into the pilots' stations and detached from the moorings at the dock.

"How do you like the Stelara?" Dee asked as Dax engaged the thrusters and pointed the little vessel toward the Pride of Olminar.

"She'd make a nice ship's boat," Rexler answered. "Thanks for sending her, by the way."

"Well, KTS has depots throughout the Outer Rim, so getting it to Eufornis Minor wasn't difficult. Besides, she's the Olminar's only embarked craft at the moment.

"You're planning for more?" Joniah asked as they drew closer to the rebel frigate.

Numarkos nodded. "We're working to acquire a couple of armed shuttles. Arclight Academy trains ground forces as well as ship crews. I've been thinking about putting together a combat element. Not just irregulars, but a real infantry force, maybe battalion-sized. For ground operations or ship-boarding."

"You've given this quite a bit of thought, haven't you?" Rexler said.

Dee nodded. As the cutter passed along the Olminar's starboard side she began reciting the vessel's features. "Two docking rings each on the starboard and port. We'll dock at one of those when we go aboard. Captain Daxarnok, why don't you describe her combat systems."

"Yes ma'am," the Filvian acknowledged. "If you look near the primary turbolaser emplacements you'll see a pair of warhead launchers. We have assault concussion missiles, heavy proton, plasma and ion pulse torpedoes. They can also launch mines and ECM drones. There's another pair of tubes aft, between the engines. She also has four standard tubes for concussion missiles, two forward and two aft."

"Impressive, not to mention expensive," Rexler said.

"Missiles are pricey, but they let us take on big ships at long range."

"Guns?"

"Six dorsal turrets with quad heavy turbolasers, sir," Daxarnok resumed. "There are six ventral turrets, four twin medium turbolasers and a pair of twin heavy ion cannons."

"What about starfighter defense?" Norissian asked.

"We have quad laser cannons and plasma pulse cannons mounted in a defensive belt amidships."

"Pulse cannons are an unusual choice," Norissian opined.

"Like the railguns," Lily added.

"We're unconventional on purpose," Numarkos said. "I want to throw the Imperials off their game, make them face an unexpected foe with unknown capabilities."

Lily pointed to the angular hull projection that they were approaching. "That looks out of place."

Dee smiled. "Cargo modules, one on each side. The Olminar is built on a Morata Heavy Industries spaceframe. KTS uses them for passenger and cargo transports. Anyway, each bay can hold twelve thousand tons. They're detachable, equipped with emergency hyperdrives and deflectors, plus landing repulsors. No maneuvering drives, though, so they'll have to be towed into orbit. The engineering team is outfitting them for troop carriage as well as cargo."

Dax guided the Stelara around the back of the ship. The primary drives comprised a broad engine array with thrust vectoring vanes that ran the width of the ship. Below that was a pair of secondary drive arrays. Between them sat a large sensor blister, and beneath that a pair of warhead launchers.

"She's a bit light on firepower at the stern, isn't she?" Norissian suggested.

"The rearmost turbolasers and the point defense turrets all have aft firing arcs," said the tactical officer.

"Trade-offs, Major" Numarkos added. "We have limited space and power. The plan is to ambush our prey, like our cell's namesake. The Olminar's primary weapons should let us take out much bigger ships, maybe even an Imperial class. But we'd probably be on the losing end of a protracted fight with anything that big."

"Big engines," Lily noted with a grin. "How fast is she?"

"Nearly three-thousand G acceleration," Dax answered. "Atmospheric speed is eleven-hundred seventy klicks per hour. And she's aerodynamic, so she can fly without repulsors in standard atmospheres at up to one point seven G."

"Hyperdrive?"

"Class zero point eight five primary with a class ten backup. She'll make a little over fourteen thousand light-years per day."

"Faster than pretty much everything in the Imperial fleet," Joniah observed.

"Short of an Acclamator, anyway," Rexler corrected. "Defensive systems?"

Dee's face lit up with the mischievous look he remembered from their days at Arkanis military academy. "She has a durasteel and titanium frame clad with duranium composite, and— you'll love this— charged hull plating."

Norissian looked quizzical. "Not ringing any bells. More ancient tech?"

"I suppose so. It's not as effective as shields, but the recharge rate is extremely fast and hull charging can be concentrated to reinforce areas where the shields are weak."

"And speaking of shields?" Joniah prompted, "What museum did you pull those out of?"

"Oh, we went ultra-modern. Vreeland Consortium MC Nine-X series. Mon Cala engineers collaborated on the design. We've got six generators, with nine projectors on the hull."

Joniah nodded his appreciation. The aquatic race were known for engineering some of the most robust shield systems in the galaxy.

"She also has four dedicated sensor jammer arrays and a Bishop-Seven prototype ECM suite. It's a step short of true stealth, but she'll be damn near impossible to detect."

"Sensors?"

"Full suite, courtesy of Filve's own HyperDyne CommSystems. Encrypted hyperwave, subspace, and Holonet transceivers, cronau radiation detector, multi-spatial navigation array, Long and short-range full spectrum active sensor mesh, and a high-res narrow field surveillance array. She can intercept multi-spectrum emissions across nearly nine hundred parsecs."

"Very impressive," Rexler said.

"Well, Karanos intended her as more of an intelligence-gathering platform than a warship. I decided it was worth keeping those assets."

Dax steered toward one of the forward docking rings.

"Let's get aboard so you can acquaint yourselves with your new ship."

"I'm looking forward to it. When will she be ready for action?"

"A couple of weeks. Our crew starts arriving in three days, so we'll be able to begin trials soon."

"Excellent. I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do."

Numarkos smiled at the new command crew and looked pleased with herself. "I think she's going to be in great hands."